Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Copper and Brass: Buffalo’s other Metallurgical Industries

By

Matthew Shoen

Buffalo is one of many Rust
Belt cities that lived and died by the steel industry. Companies like
Lackawanna Steel employed thousands of Buffalonians, driving the
city’s success throughout the twentieth century. However, in the shadows of giants like Lackawanna Steel that employed tens of thousands,
Buffalo also had a vibrant copper and brass industry, which, in 1910, employed
over 1,800 people. The nature of copper and brass manufacturing is the focus of this latest post.

A chunk of copper ore. Image taken from Wikipedia.

Copper and brass are two
metals that have been with human beings since our emergence from the Stone Age.
In fact, the widespread understanding of how to smelt copper is
one of the key points of delineation between the Stone Age and Bronze Age.

Copper is a naturally occurring metal, distinctive in appearance for its red
color and distinctive in use for its malleability. Copper can be pounded flat,
shaped, and sharpened, allowing for the creation of edged tools with greater
durability than flint and the early stone hand axes humans had been utilizing.
Around 4,200 B.C.E. Middle Eastern peoples discovered that by placing copper
ore in clay kilns they could heat the metal until it liquefied, removing
impurities from the copper and leaving behind a stronger, more easily shaped
product.

Brass, an alloy of copper and
zinc was a discover of the smelting process as both copper and zinc are
frequently discovered in a natural bond with each other. Starting with this discover, copper and brass would remain
critical metals in the evolution of human existence. Both metals would become
important in ancient decorative arts and early coinage. Starting in the sixteenth
century, brass would become the premiere metal for cannon and rifle barrels,
while copper would be used for plating on the bottom of ocean vessels to keep
their hulls from rotting and to prevent barnacles from forming colonies. Both
metals became important for practical household use,
with much of the world's copper going to kettles, pots, and eating utensils.

The Industrial Revolution
created a new demand for copper and brass. The malleability of both metals made
them perfect for creating pipes, valves, joints, and other pieces of equipment necessary to
new industrial processes.[1]
In Buffalo, the copper and brass industry contributed to the city’s industrial
growth in two separate facilities, the Buffalo Smelting Works, and the Aldrich and
Ray Manufacturing Company Building.

Located on Austin Street
in Black Rock, the Buffalo Smelting Works was a large copper ore foundry
operated by the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company from 1891 to 1914. The
smelting works was used by the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company to convert
its raw ore, mined from copper mines in Michigan, into pure copper. The
smelting works also extracted silver from the ore, returning even more mineral
value to its parent company following each successful smelting. Copper
extracted from the ore shipped to Buffalo was returned by steamer to Michigan
where it was likely rolled and shipped out for sale across the country to
copper manufacturers.

One copper
manufacturer that likely bought rolled copper from Calumet & Hecla was the Aldrich and Ray Manufacturing Company whose manufacturing space was located on Niagara Street. Founded in
1879 by Schuyler Aldrich, the company was the largest brass and copper
manufacturer in New York State by 1898, consuming over 800 tons of copper each
year to produce goods ranging from copper kettles and pots, to soda fountains, and fixtures for hotels and restaurants. The company's factory stands to this day and is a four story brick building with numerous windows along the front facade and sides that allowed light to enter the workspaces.

The Aldrich and Ray Manufacturing Company Building.

It is interesting to contrast the size
and scope of operations in the Aldrich and Ray Manufacturing Company to the city’s steel giants. Despite the high
volume of copper consumed by Aldrich and Ray, the company had only forty
employees.[2]
Further, Aldrich and Ray operated entirely out of their one building on Niagara Street. Compare that to Buffalo’s steel companies whose plants covered
hundreds of acres and featured multiple buildings working together to refine and shape steel. Thousands of men were employed at each facility, allowing steel to dominate Buffalo's marketplace.

The size discrepancy shows interesting differences in the business model of big steel vs. copper
and brass manufacturers. Steel was utilized for construction projects and infrastructure building, meaning its was produced in massive quantities. Further, steel is much more difficult to
create when compared to copper and brass. The refining process for steel wasn't made economical until the late nineteenth century. Compare that to copper, which
people had been refining since 4,200 B.C.E.

While steel was used for
large scale building projects, copper and brass have always been marked by their
flexibility and adaptable uses. The metals are easily molded and altered and this ability
partially explains why so many copper and brass manufacturers existed in
Buffalo and the rest of the country, rather than large conglomerates that marked the steel industry. Each manufacturer was capable of shifting
production to create a wide range of goods, molded to the specifications of the individual client. This flexibility allowed many small copper and brass manufacturers to flourish, but never to the level of the nineteenth century steel magnates who monopolized steel production in the late nineteenth century.

Copper and brass have been with us since the Bronze Age, shaping our world as we shape these metals into the tools we needed. In Buffalo, copper and brass became major products for the city, though they were effectively overshadowed by steel production. Nonetheless, copper and brass played an important role in the development of Buffalo and the growth of its metallurgical industry.

Example of a julep strainer made by the Aldrich and Ray Manufacturing Company. Image taken from Etsy.com.

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